While Netflix is under big pressure from investors as its growth is stalling, Disney+ is still growing at a rapid rate. In the last quarter Disney+ added almost 12 million subscribers, and has closed the gap to Netflix quickly since launching only about two years ago. The streaming market is becoming ever more saturated, so the fight for subscribers will continue for years to come.
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Due to very popular properties like Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and Disney (obviously) the streaming service from the House of Mouse has amassed nearly 130 million subscribers in record time. Its recent growth has been spurred by new content like Black Widow, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. But interestingly, a lot of its value to customers is being driven by diversity of content. It also includes ESPN+ in its service for sports fans as well as Hulu – a service producing strong content over the last several years.
“Disney may have room to grow on the streaming subscription front but at some point it will hit saturation point,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
“For now, Disney is defending its competitive position against older players, but this isn’t the walk in the park one might expect from a company with a content cupboard already brimming with famous blockbusters,” Sophie Lund-Yates, analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said.
Netflix has about 222 million subscribers – obviously still a lot more than Disney+ – but at the rate that Disney+ is growing and with Netflix slowing significantly, many believe they will be on a level playing field within a couple of years. The other factor to take into account is that Netflix is available almost everywhere around the world already, while Disney has only recently announced that it will launch in 42 new countries in the middle of 2022, opening up some more big markets.
